{"id":8601,"date":"2024-12-03T12:54:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T17:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=8601"},"modified":"2024-11-29T13:33:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T18:33:51","slug":"the-misunderstood-matter-of-bullet-overpenetration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/the-misunderstood-matter-of-bullet-overpenetration\/","title":{"rendered":"THE MISUNDERSTOOD MATTER OF BULLET OVERPENETRATION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In Detroit recently, a perpetrator opened fire among innocents and an armed citizen with a concealed carry permit shot him in the head, killing him and stopping the threat. Unfortunately, that same rescuing bullet went through the gunman\u2019s head and struck an innocent bystander, who was apparently trying to help, in <em>his <\/em>head. That innocent man died, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A fundamental rule of firearms safety is to know where the bullet is going to stop, safely. A bullet going through and through a game animal may actually be a good thing: it leaves more of a blood trail so the meat is less likely to be lost, and as the great hunting and gun expert Elmer Keith said, causes \u201ca lot of air to rush in and a lot of blood to rush out.\u201d Most of the time in the game field, the exiting bullet ends up harmlessly in some vegetation.&nbsp; However, even in that setting, we hear of the occasional case where hunting regulations allow bucks only and one deer per season, a bullet goes through the buck and into an unseen doe, and the hunter \u201chas some explaining to do\u201d with the game wardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The real problems with overpenetration come up in self-defense shootings, involving both police and armed citizens. There has been a lot of stupid commentary on that topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such as, \u201cThat never happens!\u201d <em>Really? <\/em>Google the Detroit case above. The man who fired the doubly fatal shot, the prosecutor\u2019s office has announced, will not be charged. Another idiot on a forum said something to the effect of \u201cHe didn\u2019t get charged, so it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d <em>What?!? <\/em>An innocent man is dead, and it doesn\u2019t matter? Some commentators need to get a soul. The prosecutor\u2019s ruling was correct; the rule of thumb is that if the shot was fired responsibly and in good faith, it should be treated as if it struck the intended target (only).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We hear, \u201cOverpenetrating shots are nothing to worry about, missed shots are a lot more dangerous.\u201d&nbsp; Yes, they are, but that\u2019s like saying \u201cDon\u2019t worry about herpes, AIDs is worse.\u201d You want to avoid both, in either discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overpenetrating bullets are a genuine concern, as <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/gundigest.com\/gear-ammo\/reloading\/massad-ayoob-the-dangers-of-over-penetrating-bullets?origin=serp_auto#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\">explained here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Detroit recently, a perpetrator opened fire among innocents and an armed citizen with a concealed carry permit shot him in the head, killing him and stopping the threat. Unfortunately, that same rescuing bullet went through the gunman\u2019s head and struck an innocent bystander, who was apparently trying to help, in his head. That innocent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8601"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8605,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8601\/revisions\/8605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}